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rantnrave:// The NBA has never seen anything like these Warriors. Two top-five players, four top-15 players, in a 30-team league. Basketball nirvana. Greatness is when a two-time MVP is the second-best player on the team. I don’t know for sure if the Dubs are the best team ever but I can’t say they’re not. They won 73 games last season and followed it up by being even better and thrashing Cleveland in the NBA Finals. Look how easily they got baskets in Games 1, 2 and 5. Then consider they can still play better. … The Warriors didn’t blow a 3-1 lead. … The shot-making in this series was incredible. As high a collective skill level as I’ve ever seen. … The traditional post-title commercial is my favorite shoe spot. The emotions are at their freshest. The title has just changed hands. And here comes a wonderfully produced ad to pluck those strings. Nike’s Durant commercial Monday night was awesome. … There’s only one correct LeBron James hot take after this: The Warriors needed Durant just to beat LeBron and the Cavaliers. That was the best performance by a losing player in a series. The Cavs lost in five and LeBron was still the best player on the court. … It’s easy to say the NBA is in the age of the superteam. It’s simple, but it’s true. Any free agent who teams up with other stars isn’t trying to build one of his own — he’s just trying to keep up. LeBron started the trend of using freedom of movement as the ultimate chess piece to build the team he wants. Durant took it to another level. The only way to compete for a title the next few years will be by finding alliances. Even LeBron has to contemplate how to plot his future. … Will Steve Kerr and the Warriors go to the White House? … The Warriors have done enough for Twitter. … Eric Crawford dives into the budget and dealings of the Louisville athletic department and the school’s athletic foundation. It’s an interesting poke into the work athletic programs do in the shadows as college sports grow richer and more money is spent every year. That cash flow is part of the reason the movement to pay student-athletes has ramped up in recent years. There’s a sense that they’re victims of a multibillion dollar system they hardly profit from — and that the people who do get paid aren’t likable protagonists. … How to hit the best jump serve on sand.
Respect, loyalty, competition: The complex legacy of Broncos CB Aqib Talib
Talib probably is a little bit of whatever you think he is — rough around the edges, a special talent, authentic, a loose cannon — but here he is the man. And, at age 31, entering the twilight of his NFL career, the word legacy has been eating at him. He is beginning to wonder how he will be remembered.
Cameron Wolfe | The Denver Post
EA boss Andrew Wilson’s vision of gaming’s future will blow your mind
Games are set to change more in the next five years than they have in the last 45, he says.
John Davison | Glixel
English soccer has a gambling problem — is it time to seek help?
The betting industry is now “at the beating heart of the beautiful game,” but a raft of recent incidents have raised serious questions about the relationship between football and gambling.
Alex Hess | Vice Sports
This amateur soccer team, headquartered in a liquor store, never practices and rarely loses
Christos FC, a Baltimore-based club, is the last amateur squad left standing in a tournament dominated by pros. Their next opponent: D.C. United on Tuesday night.
Nick Eilerson | The Washington Post
From Fly Williams to LeBron James, many legends made point to play in hallowed Queens gym’s tourney
High noon comes to Queens as locals hustle south along 167th Street to bear witness to a rite of spring. It is 70 degrees and sunny, but devotees of the I.S. 8 Classic, a long-running prep basketball showcase that dates back decades, gather indoors. Four men pop open beach chairs by the baseline inside a tinderbox at Intermediate School 8.
Kevin Armstrong | NY Daily News
“It’s not enough to be smart. You have to be curious.”
